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English Synonyms and Antonyms

<h3>VENIAL.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>excusable,</td><td>pardonable,</td><td>slight,</td><td>trivial.</td></tr> </table> Venial (L. venia, pardon) signifies capable of being pardoned, and, in common use, capable of being readily pardoned, easily overlooked. Aside from its technical ecclesiastical use, venial is always understood as marking some fault comparatively slight or trivial. A venial offense is one readily overlooked; a pardonable offense requires more serious consideration, but on deliberation is found to be susceptible of pardon. Excusable is scarcely applied to offenses, but to matters open to doubt or criticism rather than direct censure; so used, it often falls little short of justifiable; as, I think, under those circumstances, his action was excusable. Protestants do not recognize the distinction between venial and mortal sins. Venial must not be confounded with the very different word VENAL. Compare VENAL. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>inexcusable,</td><td>inexpiable,</td><td>mortal,</td><td>unpardonable,</td><td>unjustifiable.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>VERACITY.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>candor,</td><td>honesty,</td><td>reality,</td><td>truthfulness,</td></tr> <tr><td>frankness,</td><td>ingenuousness,</td><td>truth,</td><td>verity.</td></tr> </table> Truth is primarily and verity is always a quality of thought or speech, especially of speech, as in exact conformity to fact. Veracity is properly a quality of a person, the habit of speaking and the disposition to speak the truth; a habitual liar may on some occasions speak the truth, but that does not constitute him a man of veracity; on the other hand, a person of undoubted veracity may state (through ignorance or misinformation) what is not the truth. Truthfulness is a quality that may inhere either in a person or in his statements or beliefs. Candor, frankness, honesty, and ingenuousness are allied with veracity, and verity with truth, while truthfulness may accord with either. Truth in a secondary sense may be applied to intellectual action or moral character, in the former case becoming a close synonym of veracity; as, I know him to be a man of truth. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>deceit,</td><td>duplicity,</td><td>falsehood,</td><td>fiction,</td><td>lie,</td></tr> <tr><td>deception,</td><td>error,</td><td>falseness,</td><td>guile,</td><td>mendacity,</td></tr> <tr><td>delusion,</td><td>fabrication,</td><td>falsity,</td><td>imposture,</td><td>untruth.</td></tr> </table> Compare synonyms for DECEPTION. <hr /> <h3>VERBAL.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>literal,</td><td>oral,</td><td>vocal.</td></tr> </table> Oral (L. os, the mouth) signifies uttered through the mouth or (in common phrase) by word of mouth; verbal (L. verbum, a word) signifies of, pertaining to, or connected with words, especially with words as distinguished from the ideas they convey; vocal (L. vox, the voice) signifies of or pertaining to the voice, uttered or modulated by the voice, and especially uttered with or sounding with full, resonant voice; literal (L. litera, a letter) signifies consisting of or expressed by letters, or according to the letter, in the broader sense of the exact meaning or requirement of the words used; what is called "the letter of the law" is its literal meaning without going behind what is expressed by the letters on the page. Thus oral applies to that which is given by spoken words in distinction from that which is written or printed; as, oral tradition; an oral examination. By this rule we should in strictness speak of an oral contract or an oral message, but verbal contract and verbal message, as indicating that which is by spoken rather than by written words, have become so fixed in the language that they can probably never be changed; this usage is also in line with other idioms of the language; as, "I give you my word," "a true man's word is as good as his bond," "by word of mouth," etc. A verbal translation may be oral or written, so that it is word for word; a literal translation follows the construction and idiom of the original as well as the words; a literal translation is more than one that is merely verbal; both verbal and literal are opposed to free. In the same sense, of attending to words only, we speak of verbal criticism, a verbal change. Vocal has primary reference to the human voice; as, vocal sounds, vocal music; vocal may be applied within certain limits to inarticulate sounds given forth by other animals than man; as, the woods were vocal with the songs of birds; oral is never so applied, but is limited to articulate utterance regarded as having a definite meaning; as, an oral statement. <hr /> <h3>VICTORY.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>achievement,</td><td>conquest,</td><td>success,</td><td rowspan="2">triumph.</td></tr> <tr><td>advantage,</td><td>mastery,</td><td>supremacy,</td></tr> </table> Victory is the state resulting from the overcoming of an opponent or opponents in any contest, or from the overcoming of difficulties, obstacles, evils, etc., considered as opponents or enemies. In the latter sense any hard-won achievement, advantage, or success may be termed a victory. In conquest and mastery there is implied a permanence of state that is not implied in victory. Triumph, originally denoting the public rejoicing in honor of a victory, has come to signify also a peculiarly exultant, complete, and glorious victory. Compare CONQUER. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>defeat,</td><td>disappointment,</td><td>failure,</td><td>miscarriage,</td><td>retreat,</td></tr> <tr><td>destruction,</td><td>disaster,</td><td>frustration,</td><td>overthrow,</td><td>rout.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>VIGILANT.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>alert,</td><td>cautious,</td><td>on the lookout,</td><td>wary,</td></tr> <tr><td>awake,</td><td>circumspect,</td><td>sleepless,</td><td>watchful,</td></tr> <tr><td>careful,</td><td>on the alert,</td><td>wakeful,</td><td>wide-awake.</td></tr> </table> Vigilant implies more sustained activity and more intelligent volition than alert; one may be habitually alert by reason of native quickness of perception and thought, or one may be momentarily alert under some excitement or expectancy; one who is vigilant is so with thoughtful purpose. One is vigilant against danger or harm; he may be alert or watchful for good as well as against evil; he is wary in view of suspected stratagem, trickery, or treachery. A person may be wakeful because of some merely physical excitement or excitability, as through insomnia; yet he may be utterly careless and negligent in his wakefulness, the reverse of watchful; a person who is truly watchful must keep himself wakeful while on watch, in which case wakeful has something of mental quality. Watchful, from the Saxon, and vigilant, from the Latin, are almost exact equivalents; but vigilant has somewhat more of sharp definiteness and somewhat more suggestion of volition; one may be habitually watchful; one is vigilant of set purpose and for direct cause, as in the presence of an enemy. Compare ALERT. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>careless,</td><td>heedless,</td><td>inconsiderate,</td><td>oblivious,</td></tr> <tr><td>drowsy,</td><td>inattentive,</td><td>neglectful,</td><td>thoughtless,</td></tr> <tr><td>dull,</td><td>incautious,</td><td>negligent,</td><td>unwary.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>VIRTUE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>chastity,</td><td>honesty,</td><td>probity,</td><td>truth,</td></tr> <tr><td>duty,</td><td>honor,</td><td>purity,</td><td>uprightness,</td></tr> <tr><td>excellence,</td><td>integrity,</td><td>rectitude,</td><td>virtuousness,</td></tr> <tr><td>faithfulness,</td><td>justice,</td><td>righteousness,</td><td>worth,</td></tr> <tr><td>goodness,</td><td>morality,</td><td>rightness,</td><td>worthiness.</td></tr> </table> Virtue (L. virtus, primarily manly strength or courage, from vir, a man, a hero) is, in its full sense, goodness that is victorious through trial, perhaps through temptation and conflict. Goodness, the being morally good, may be much less than virtue, as lacking the strength that comes from trial and conflict, or it may be very much more than virtue, as rising sublimely above the possibility of temptation and conflict—the infantile as contrasted with the divine goodness. Virtue is distinctively human; we do not predicate it of God. Morality is conformity to the moral law in action, whether in matters concerning ourselves or others, whether with or without right principle. Honesty and probity are used especially of one's relations to his fellow men, probity being to honesty much what virtue in some respects is to goodness; probity is honesty tried and proved, especially in those things that are beyond the reach of legal requirement; above the commercial sense, honesty may be applied to the highest truthfulness of the soul to and with itself and its Maker. Integrity, in the full sense, is moral wholeness without a flaw; when used, as it often is, of contracts and dealings, it has reference to inherent character and principle, and denotes much more than superficial or conventional honesty. Honor is a lofty honesty that scorns fraud or wrong as base and unworthy of itself. Honor rises far above thought of the motto that "honesty is the best policy." Purity is freedom from all admixture, especially of that which debases; it is chastity both of heart and life, but of the life because from the heart. Duty, the rendering of what is due to any person or in any relation, is, in this connection, the fulfilment of moral obligation. Rectitude and righteousness denote conformity to the standard of right, whether in heart or act; righteousness is used especially in the religious sense. Uprightness refers especially to conduct. Virtuousness is a quality of the soul or of action; in the latter sense it is the essence of virtuous action. Compare INNOCENT; JUSTICE; RELIGION. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>evil,</td><td>vice,</td><td>viciousness,</td><td>wickedness,</td><td>wrong.</td></tr> </table> Compare synonyms for SIN. <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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